How Passion, a Grant, and the Spark of Community are Revitalizing this Small Town and Setting an Example for Us All
By Sarah Mayle
A plucky village of about 1,500 people established in 1844, there has always been a sense of pride and community in Arlington. Yet in recent years, something more has taken shape. It started with a group of community members who worked together, applied for a grant, and got it. It has become something palpable. A unified positivity. A collective energy. Action.
Amber Newlove and Lauren Etler (L-R) are co-chairs of the Arlington Community Heart & Soul Grant.
“People always say, ‘What are you building? What physical thing are you building with these grant dollars?’” explained Lauren Etler, co-project coordinator of the Community Heart & Soul Grant. “It was confusing for us to wrap our heads around it at first too, but my answer is, ‘We are building community.’”
Arlington was awarded the $140,000 Community Heart & Soul grant in July of 2022 by the Findlay Hancock County Community Foundation, through the Orton Foundation. As the group of grant-seekers celebrated the victory, Etler and long-time resident Amber Newlove were selected from it to co-lead its implementation. A core team of volunteers has continued to help.
The grant is to be used for community development and centers around three main principles:
- To involve everyone in the community, especially those whose voice is not usually heard;
- To focus on what matters most by identifying what stakeholders love about their community and what they hope for in its future; and
- To play the long game, to treat this as the start of an evolution, a new, sustainable way of moving forward together.
The goal of the program is to tap into Arlington’s Heart & Soul, the essence of what makes it a community and build upon it. Its reach also includes the surrounding townships and rural community, too. An added benefit by design through Heart & Soul, Etler said, is that this process establishes a database, a solid foundation to apply for future grant dollars to “get physical things” that lead to further enrichment of the community.
Etler, Newlove and their team began in 2022 by identifying community groups – from formally organized entities like the Village Council and Arlington Beautification Committee, to informal ones, like a group of friends who meet regularly for coffee. Their objective was to reach all demographics, and so they visited groups and linked into community events where they could explain the grant and gather community input.
“During this part you’re finding out what matters most to your community, what their hopes, concerns and ideas for the future are,” Newlove said. “In the process of doing that, you gather stories from people – their stories about being a part of the community.”
A network of volunteers continues to help Newlove and Etler interview residents, collect data, and organize and host events, so far logging about 2,000 hours. From the collected stories and interview questions, they identified the topics that matter most to the Arlington community: Businesses, History and Tradition, Recreation, School, and a Sense of Community.
Etler, Newlove and their team have worked hard to establish Heart & Soul as an important driver in the community. There is a tab for Arlington Heart & Soul on the Village of Arlington’s website. There is an Arlington Heart & Soul Facebook page. They have sweatshirts, T-shirts, signs, and banners. For community events, they have purchased a projector and giant screen for movies, a “money machine” inside which one lucky person stands inside grabbing cash as it flies through the air, and a pop-a-shot wagon for competitive fun. And, the team created an Arlington Heart & Soul logo with a strong, flourishing tree at the center, and key words “Growing Together Arlington” written inside.
From their website: “Think of it as a period of working ground, planting seeds, watering, and then anticipating the growth and beauty that will certainly result! (Our) logo is meant to reflect this process and this hope, reminding us that as we are branching out, we remain rooted in who we are as a community while growing together.”
The Arlington’s Heart & Soul logo on display at their booth during the village festival.
The Joy is in the Journey
To discover the community, to get to its Heart & Soul, Etler, Newlove and their team had to create community, and they did it by organizing events.
“The events are primarily to bring community members together – so usually that involves food – but just something that any demographic could come to,” Etler said. “At these events we may be gathering data, but many times we’re also sharing themes from the data, or having people vote on ideas.”
Newlove added, “Our hope is that after you do these events a couple of times it becomes a tradition, a feeling of, ‘This is what we do in Arlington.’”
They have held “Meet in the Street” gatherings and closed down an Arlington side street for Chili Cookoffs and Kickoff to Summer events. The team is aways part of the Arlington Festival, and they have held events at the community park during which residents voted on action ideas.
For something intergenerational and to involve more men in the data collection process, Etler, Newlove and their team held an Alumni Football Event, including band members and cheerleaders. At one of the football games, they set up displays for Heart & Soul and football memorabilia and invited former players to attend a breakfast at the school in the morning. There, alumni were paired up with present-day varsity football players.
“…and so the current players did the interviews, they got to talk to the alumni and ask the questions that we needed for our data,” Etler said. “It was such a great event. We had a massive turnout; our cafeteria was full. And to see the young guys talking to the older ones and vice versa, that was really special.”
Heart & Soul has held several “Sip and Share” events at local shops like Hurdwell and Hull’s Trace. One was a Blizzard Night to collect stories about the Blizzard of ‘78, another was to recall memories about Stella’s Restaurant, a legendary diner, candy store and ice cream shop that was located in the town square and open all day every day. Stella’s was a town staple from 1947-1982 and was run by Stella Bibler, who died in 1995.
“It looked bad on the outside but people have great memories of it,” Newlove said, smiling wistfully. “Everyone knew Stella and everyone had a story about Stella’s.”
Arlingtonians gather for a Meet in the Street movie event in 2024.
Positivity that Couldn’t Wait
From the data collected, Etler and Newlove also identified community concerns coupled with 1,200 ideas for action. Etler used AI to help narrow the ideas – sifting through overlap and considering feasibility – to 44 that fit into those five areas that matter most. As always, the findings were taken back to the people, and they had the opportunity to vote for their top picks at a Heart & Soul event.
From this latest round of data and input, the Heart & Soul team finalized a rough draft of the community action plan that was revealed at the end of May during the community’s Meet in the Street: Kickoff to Summer event. Once it’s finished, likely in mid-July, the grant will enter into its final phase, where they take action.
And there will be action. Steps will be taken to bring the collective dreams of Arlington into reality. But the amazing thing is, action didn’t wait for the next step of the process. The community already came together. The action has already begun.
“To me it is amazing and certainly commendable, the things they’re doing right now in Arlington,” said Matt Gilroy, director of strategic initiatives for Findlay Hancock County Economic Development. “These are the kinds of things that really take a community forward. What they are doing now will continue to benefit that community 30, 40, even 50 years from now. It’s incredible.”
People wanted a newsletter. Etler, Newlove and their team created “The Arlingtonian,” a quarterly publication, and it is already being emailed to 500 people with 400 copies printed.
People identified three of the four corners at the stop light on Main Street as an eyesore. Heart & Soul, the Arlington Beautification Committee and Heritage Committee worked together to change that. They spoke with the lot owner, who was very supportive, and set to work pulling weeds, mulching, and planting flowers. Etler applied for a grant that financed a beautiful historic mural that the building owner was happy to accommodate, turning an eyesore into a point of pride in the community.
The new playground equipment at Arlington Village Park has already offered active fun to young enthusiasts.
People wished for new playground equipment at the park. Using data collected in the Heart & Soul process, Arlington Village Council Member Cati Barker applied for a grant and was awarded funding. The equipment has already been installed.
People said it was hard to navigate how things work as a newcomer to Arlington and meet others. Danielle Wilkin, a Heart & Soul core team member, Arlington resident and Community Relations and Development Manager for VisitFindlay, took on that hurdle and created a Welcome Packet. It’s a “How To” for living in Arlington and includes everything – from a listing of local businesses, to how to pay your water bill, to organizations you can join, or how to sign your kids up for soccer.
People wished there was an ice cream shop in Arlington. Knowing this from data collection, Etler, Newlove and their team set up a board at the Arlington Festival with a picture of a vacant building on Main Street that used to be an ice cream shop. They asked, “What do you wish this could be?” Passers-by were invited to place a sticky note with their input on the board, and resoundingly, they wanted an ice cream shop or diner.
“We noticed one of the people there who was looking at the board took a picture,” Newlove said. “Later we found out she and her husband were contemplating buying that building to open up an ice cream shop, so seeing all of the positive interest in it helped to spur them. They could visibly see that this is what the community wants.”
Main Street Eats, an ice cream shop and restaurant that offers breakfast, lunch, dinner and even specialty coffee and smoothies, held its grand opening on May 24.
Embracing the Past in the Future
In the realm of Arlington legacy, Newlove’s family is the second generation to call the village home. As a child, she remembered her elementary school principal saying, “Arlington is a step above the rest,” and she believed that and felt pride as a child. She feels rooted in the community, enveloped by its people and memories, even recalling when she worked at nursing home Good Samaritan Society and how the residents’ stories drew her in still further.
Etler’s family – both sides – have lived in Arlington since its inception in 1844. (That’s 181 years!)
“I love Arlington, I just have a passion for Arlington,” Etler said. “The fact that my mom and my dad on both sides, we go all the way back, we’ve all been here so long, I think it just speaks to the community and who we are and the pride we have in that. There’s just a lot of love, so much family legacy. A lot of memories have been made here.”
Already, Arlington is the kind of place where, when their high school boys’ basketball team made it to the state semi-finals this year, the town was permeated by colorful cloth banners encouraging the boys to victory. When the boys’ run ended, they returned home to the whole community lining the streets and cheering, a celebration of an incredible season.
“It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it, but that’s ok – I feel like we’re doing our jobs when the passion of Arlington shows through us,” Newlove said.
With the momentum of Heart & Soul, it seems the only place Arlington can go is up. There is much to celebrate, much to remember, a whole lot of ideas to make the community even better, engaged citizens ready to take action, and soon, there will be an official, collective plan.
“I feel like the mentality, our outlook in Arlington has changed, and I’m not saying we deserve credit for that,” Newlove said. “But there are a lot of positive things happening – the little things we’ve all come together to improve, I feel like it creates a positive vibe. People are asking themselves, ‘What can I do to make things look better or look nicer?’”
Etler added, “A rising tide lifts all boats. Everyone – whether it’s Main Street Eats, city council, the park, or the Beautification Committee, or us at Heart & Soul, or the new school we’re building, or our 4-H communities picking up trash… It’s just rising all of us, it’s helping all of us succeed, and look better, and do better, and I know we’ll continue in that positive momentum.”
That rising tide? It’s the community’s heart and soul.
